Archive for May 25th, 2013

Officials involved in the construction and repair of primary and secondary buildings said that many such buildings across the country were risky. Officials of the Directorate of Primary Education and engineering officials of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, however, failed to give any figure of such buildings amid cracks reported by the media to have developed in about […]

The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha has begun listing garment factories located in residential buildings in the capital ostensibly to discourage the use of such buildings as apparel factories, Rajuk officials told New Age. Eight teams formed by the city development authorities have already started preparing a list of unauthorised garment factories in the city areas under the jurisdiction of the detailed […]

The 114th anniversary of birth of national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, who stood against colonialism and oppression through his revolutionary literary works, will be celebrated today. Nazrul, a poet, lyricist, composer, dramatist, short-story writer, journalist and political activist, was born this day in 1899 in a poor Muslim family at Churulia of Burdwan in West Bengal. He died in Dhaka […]

The BNP-led opposition alliance has called a nationwide, dawn-to-dusk general strike for Sunday in protest at the government’s imposing restrictions on rallies and processions in the country for a month. The strike is also meant to push for the reinstatement of of the provision for an election-time, non-party government in the constitution, the release of alliance leaders from jail, the […]

The Awami League-led alliance government for the first time in its tenure is set to miss its revenue collection target this fiscal year strengthening the concern that full implementation of the current budget will continue to remain a far cry. National Board of Revenue officials said revenue collection was likely to fall Tk 3,560 crore short of the current fiscal […]

The number of anthrax infections has increased with the advent of rainy season with 33 new cases detected in Tangail and Sirajganj districts. The Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research reports 25 people have been infected with anthrax this month in Bhuapur and Jamunachar of Tangail. ‘We’ve identified 25 anthrax-infected people this month in Tangail,’ IEDCR senior scientific officer […]

Unusually heavy rainfall, water-logging, storms, and flash flooding have been hampering the ongoing boro harvest across the country, said farmers and agriculturists. They said there might be a big shortfall in production of the country’s biggest food crop this year due to a reduction in the boro cultivation acreage, damage of the crop in the coastal belt in cyclone Mahasen, […]

The government is likely to postpone the implementation of creative question papers in mathematics for examinees taking the SSC exams in 2015 in the face of countrywide protests from students and guardians. Creative questions have four segments instead of the century-old descriptive type and specific marks are allotted for each of the segments. According to a government order issued on […]

Senior leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Friday lambasted leaders of the ruling Awami League for carrying out what they said was a smear campaign against BNP senior vice chairman Tarique Rahman ‘out of envy at his popularity’. BNP standing committee members Rafiqul Islam Mia and Goyeshwar Chandra Roy at a news briefing at the party chairperson’s Gulshan office […]

The European Parliament has threatened to withdraw generalised system of preference, the duty and quota-free access to EU market that Bangladesh enjoys. The warning comes after allegations of labour rights violations in the recent collapse of Rana Plaza in Savar, where over a thousand have died, and the fire at Tazreen Fashions Limited, which claimed over 100 lives in November […]

Dhaka University law teacher Asif Nazrul, who has recently been critical of the government in television talk-shows, received a phone call on Thursday telling him that he would be shot dead, if he took part in a talk-show again. An unidentified person made the call at 1:48pm from a cell phone using the Teletalk SIM 01552951453. Asif filed a general […]

A young housewife was killed allegedly by her husband for dowry at Ripar village in Raipura upazila of Narsingdi on Friday evening. The deceased was Aklima Begum, 25, wife of Masud Mia, a resident of the same village. Officer-in-charge of Raipura police station Mahmudur Rahman said Masud married Aklima, who hailed from Arashida village in Bhirab upazila of Kishoreganj, three […]

A local Awami League leader was stabbed to death by miscreants near Daldoli union parishad office in Bholahat upazila of Chapainawabganj on Thursday. The deceased was Durul Hoda, general secretary of Daldoli union Parishad Awami League unit. Officer-in-charge of Bholahat police station SM Abu Farhad said a gang of 10-12 miscreants swooped on Durul at a tea stall around about […]

People seeking machine readable passports in the capital have to undergo great sufferings due to the lack of adequate offices as well as manpower at the Department of Immigration and Passports. According to official sources, currently three offices in Dhaka city have to deal with the task of issuance of over 2,500 MRPs every day which they feel ‘excessive load’ […]

The second batch of female migrant workers left Dhaka for Hong Kong by Biman Bangladesh Airlines on Friday night. ‘Eleven female workers have left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport by a Biman Bangladesh flight tonight,’ a senior official of the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training told New Age over telephone. He said the BG flight, scheduled to take off at […]

Awami League presidium member Mohammad Nasim has claimed that the recent report of the Amnesty International on Bangladesh was not neutral. ‘Though you (AI) talk about neutrality, but your report was not neutral as it did not mention killing of police and anarchy carried out by Jamaat and Hefajat,’ he said. Nasim, a former home minister, was addressing a discussion […]

Brood fishes (mother fishes) of some indigenous fish species like Ruhi, Katla, Mrigel and Kaliboush have released some quantity of eggs at some places of Halda River in Chittagong for the second time Thursay, fishing department source said. There was some delay in spawning by fishes this year due to late rainfall, though usually the mother fishes release eggs at […]

Detectives of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police in three separate drives in the capital on Thursday night arrested five members of an arms-trafficking racket with six foreign small arms and 28 bullets and two female Yaba traders with 200 tablets of the narcotics. The arrested arms racketeers are gang leader Fakhrul Islam Apu, 31, Mobarok Hossain Masud, 30, Shohidul Islam Khokon, […]

The second US-Bangladesh Partnership Dialogue will begin in Dhaka Sunday focusing four key areas — development cooperation and governance; trade and investment; security cooperation; and regional integration apart from the current political uncertainty. The US assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs, Jose W Fernandez, will arrive in Dhaka on a four-day visit today to attend the dialogue […]

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party extended support to the party executive committee member Ariful Haque Chowdhury to contest the Sylhet mayoral polls slated for June 15. The BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia made the announcement on Thursday night after a meeting at her Gulshan office with the four mayoral aspirants of the party – its former Sylhet city unit president Ariful Haque […]